Infinite Days (Vampire Queen Series, #1)
Author: Rebecca Maziel
Purchase on Amazon
and Barnes
and Noble.
Synopsis: “Throughout all my histories, I found no
one I loved more than you... no one.”
Those were some of Rhode’s last words to me. The last time he would pronounce his love. The last time I would see his face.
It was the first time in 592 years I could take a breath. Lay in the sun. Taste.
Rhode sacrificed himself so I, Lenah Beaudonte, could be human again. So I could stop the blood lust.
I never expected to fall in love with someone else that wasn’t Rhode.
But Justin was... daring. Exciting. More beautiful than I could dream.
I never expected to be sixteen again... then again, I never expected my past to come back and haunt me.
Those were some of Rhode’s last words to me. The last time he would pronounce his love. The last time I would see his face.
It was the first time in 592 years I could take a breath. Lay in the sun. Taste.
Rhode sacrificed himself so I, Lenah Beaudonte, could be human again. So I could stop the blood lust.
I never expected to fall in love with someone else that wasn’t Rhode.
But Justin was... daring. Exciting. More beautiful than I could dream.
I never expected to be sixteen again... then again, I never expected my past to come back and haunt me.
Brought to you by TeamNerd Reviewer
Annabell Cadiz
Warning: There will be spoilers!
Review: In signing up for the Stolen Nights Blog Tour for the month
of January, I quickly realized I had signed up to read and review the sequel
without having read the first book. I quickly searched my library’s database
and managed to find a copy of Infinite
Days. Initially, I had hope for this series, I liked the concept behind it,
but that did not last for too long.
Lenah Beaudonte
is a five hundred and twenty-something year old vampire queen of the most
powerful vampire coven. Upon the opening of Infinite
Days, she is awakening not as a vampire but as a human. Rhode, her greatest
love, has sacrificed his life, as stated in an ancient ritual that had to be performed,
so that Lenah can finally be free of her vampire form. Rhode leaves behind a
letter explaining to Lenah what she will face in the now twenty-first century
and warns her against coven finding her; if they do they will kill her. Lenah
is to attend a boarding school as a way to remain hidden and assimilate herself
into her new world. But even hidden among humans, Lenah isn’t free of her the
darkness of her past or her ruthless coven.
As I’ve stated
above, the concept behind Infinite Days
was a fairly unique idea: a powerful vampire queen being transformed into a
human through an ancient powerful ritual of magic and sacrifice. I had also
liked the fact that Lenah was able to retain some of her vampire gifts: being
able to read people’s emotions and see every little detail in everything. I
also enjoyed the scenes that traveled back in time to show Lenah’s life through
flashbacks when she was a vampire queen. They were dark and raw, displaying
just how ruthless and cunning vampires are and the terrifying beauty that hides
the truth of what they are.
Outside of that
though, there wasn’t much else I liked about the book.
Rhode had
potential but he gets killed off at the beginning which was disappointing
because he was the best character in the book. I also liked Tony’s character, at
least in the first third of the book.
Lenah is so full
of herself I could barely stomach her character. She can’t go more than a few
paragraphs without reminding the reader just how amazing and powerful she was as
a vampire, how beautiful she was as a vampire and still is as a human, how she
can speak twenty-five languages and is good at EVERYTHING. She wakes up to a world
and generation she no longer recognizes, after having been hibernating for a
hundred years and just conveniently knows how to handle everything; even speak
like sixteen-year-olds of the twentieth century. She uses the people around her
and only worries about her needs, her wants, her feelings. There was no choice
but to endure her character since the story was narrated from her point of
view.
Justin Enos is
the hot, rich, popular jock who is one part arrogant and one part sweet and
down to earth. Justin was an okay read. There was nothing to separate him from
a genre that contains countless other hot, rich, popular jock type male leads.
The romance
between Lenah and Justin is shallow from the beginning. She falls for him because
he’s the hottest commodity in school and of course Justin can’t resist for too
long, even though he already has a girlfriend. (insert major eye roll here)
The one element
that annoyed me the most was the death of Tony. There was absolutely no reason
for Tony to be killed! His death felt like the author’s attempt to cover up a
lack luster climax which didn’t work. The first third of the book showed Tony
as the sweet, somewhat awkward, loveable nerd and I instantly liked his
character from the beginning. But his character soon loses depth when he falls
for Lenah (shocked face) and becomes obsessed with her.
The biggest
problem of the book is the lack of an actual plot. There isn’t a lot that
happens outside of a battle scene with the coven, Lenah being turned back into
a vampire, and another fight with her coven. The sacrifice Lenah makes at the
end was meant to show her as a heroine who cares but in reality, it’s what she
deserved. She had been so selfish in both her vampire life and human life; she
deserved to give up her life for someone who had suffered at her hands. It was
justifiable. I felt no sympathy for her at the end.
I also didn’t
really see the need for her to go in hibernation for a hundred years.
Supposedly, she went into hibernation in order for Rhode to be able to keep her
hidden while he prepared the ritual and could move her without the coven
suspecting anything. But why couldn’t Lenah just lie to her coven and say she
was traveling somewhere with Rhode? After all she is the queen, they have to
obey her. Rhode also didn’t do much to help make sure Lenah would be prepared
for what she would have to face not only in the human world but when her coven
found her. What was he doing for a hundred years?? Lenah also gets turned back
into a vampire but somehow manages to retain her human soul even though that’s
not supposed to happen. That was never explained. She also develops some new
power where can create sunlight with her hands but that is never explained.
Infinite Days could have been something different and
new but the lack of character development, lack plot structure and execution,
and cliché romance, made the book fall flat.
About the Author: Rebecca Maizel received her B.S. from
Boston University and has masters degrees from RIC and VCFA. She
teaches literature in her home state of RI. She talks to her Bichon Frise
George like he’s a real person.
Where to Find the Author
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